Here we provide background information about the Festival itself and about its island setting. The Festival is an ideal time to visit Orkney, to see more of the islands and their wealth of history, archaeology and natural beauty. The Festival programme includes outings with expert guidance, talks with new insights, and an opportunity to meet many people, local and visiting. There are also opportunities to sample Orkney food and drink in what is overall a true Festival atmosphere.

FRONTIERS magazine
The new online magazine Frontiers
is now available. It is aimed to be
a magazine in its own right,
highlighting stories about science
and people, with a wide range of
contributors and a high
quality of design.

You can get more information about the Festival in a variety of ways, and you can also contact us direct.

Dejan Lapanja is one of Slovenian’s top jazz guitarists, playing with various leading bands and also in solo concerts.

Katarina Juvančič is a frequent visitor to Scotland, taking part in folk festivals and concerts from Shetland to the Borders, and the concept and collaboration of the new CD has developed out of her Scottish experiences – coupled with her deep commitment to putting on record the stories of women who triumph against all the odds against them.

“Hope’s Beautiful Daughters is a celebration of the female gender in all its beauty, mystery, wisdom, strength and vulnerability, and the friendships that nurture them in this world.

”It’s built around friendship forged in Scotland and Slovenia, and from the female power, courage, wisdom and love that has shaped the history of our time,” she says.

The CD will be launched in Stromness, Orkney, on the evening of Wednesday 3 September, in a concert in the Town Hall featuring Katarina Juvančič, Dejan Lapanja and Orkney storyteller Tom Muir. It starts at 7.30 pm.

The concert will be an eve-of-Festival event for the annual Orkney International Science Festival, which starts the following morning, and Science Festival director Howie Firth says he is delighted with the link.

He says, “The Science Festival this year will be featuring several speakers from Slovenia, and Katarina and Dejan will be staying on to take part in a special Festival event combining science and music. Their Stromness concert and their wonderful stories are a real treat for us to feature and for everyone to enjoy.”
Tickets for the concert can be purchased here in the Tickets section of the site, or from the tourist offices in Kirkwall and Stromness. Copies of the CD will be on sale at the concert.

The tracks and the stories

Irena tells a story of a little boy saved by Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse who smuggled more than 2,500 Jewish children from the German-occupied Warsaw ghetto during World War II.

2. SKELETON WOMAN

This song was inspired by ‘Skeleton Woman’, a tale of the Inuit people I found in a book by Clarissa Pinkola Estés called Women Who Run with the Wolves.

3. DREAMMAKER

A folk tale from the Hebrides that tells of a courageous journey to wisdom (The Dreammaker), told by David Campbell.

4. FRIDA

I wrote this song in the most strenuous days of my life – to soothe myself and all the women from the hospital ward, trembling between life and death. And also for Frida Kahlo.

5. URSILLA

An Orkney folk tale (Ursilla and her Selkie Lover) depicting a rather unusual and bold way to find love, told by Tom Muir.

6. SISTER SUN

This song depicts an Inuit legend ‘Sister Sun Brother Moon’ that was collected by the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas and published in his monograph The Central Eskimo (1888).

7. SVARILO JANEZU

This Slovenian-Scottish version of a Scottish song called Mickey’s Warning/Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk was arranged by Karine Polwart and Katarina Juvančič. Abuse of women knows no linguistic barriers and neither does the courage to leave.

8. MALLIE

Shetland folk tale (Mallie and the Trow) about kindness of heart in the midst of great poverty, told by Lawrence Tulloch.

9. ROSA

Rosa is based on the book The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg and it pays a tribute to her feisty, passionate, sparkly, proud, untameable and profoundly sensitive spirit.